The Evangelization of the World in “This Generation”
By Wm. Penniman
In the Review of August 4, we read from a brief editorial the following forcible words: “The time of the promise is drawing near. Tell it out. This generation will witness the consummation of God’s purpose for his people. Tell it out.” The spirit of prophecy says that “all heaven is astir,” and that the “angel of mercy is about to depart from the earth,” and that “we are on the verge of the eternal world.” In view of these things, why should not all God’s people be awake, and “tell it out”? The evangelization spirit is increasing in the world, and seems to be permeating churches which are not Adventists. They used to talk much of, and pray for, the conversion of the world, but the more intelligent class have given up the idea, and now talk more of its evangelization. And why should they not abandon the thought that the world is growing better and ripening for the millennium, when crime of every description is so terribly on the increase? It is not in the province of this article to prove the increase of criminality, but it may not be amiss to state one fact for the benefit of some. The Pittsburg Dispatch says:— “Bishop Coleman, of Delaware, has been telling an audience that crime in the United States has increased enormously since 1850. In that year there was one criminal in every 3,412 of population. In 1890, forty years later, the proportion had increased to one in every 715.” No doubt the true statistics will show a constant increase of wickedness from 1890 to the present time, not only in the United States, but throughout the world. Notwithstanding all this increase of wickedness and the increase of the power of Satan, the world must and will be evangelized in “this generation.” Some branches of the Young People’s Christian Association have caught some of the evangelizing spirit. Some time ago I heard a Christian, a Disciple, preacher say that he thought the world might be evangelized in fifty years, but it can be in one-fifth of that time if all are wide awake. We can not better close this article than by quoting briefly from an able and stirring editorial in The Word and Way, a Baptist paper, published in Kansas City, Mo. The editorial is in the issue of June 25, under the heading, “Missions the Greatest Work in the World. Awake, Awake! Put on Thy Strength, O Zion.” Note that the writer uses the significant words, “The present generation of God’s people,” etc. It has the right ring, so far as it goes, and we only wish it had the full ring of the third angel’s message. We quote briefly as follows:— “To save lost men God gave his only begotten Son. To save men Christ gave his life. After he had purchased eternal redemption on the cross for lost man, and just before he ascended into heaven to take his place as intercessor at the right hand of the Father, he proclaimed that all authority in heaven and on earth has been committed to him, and invested with this universal authority, he issued the command that the gospel should be preached to all the world. “This tremendous and transcendently important work is only partly done. Millions are to-day without the gospel—have never heard it. The present generation of God’s people must give the present generation of the benighted millions the gospel, as the present generation that has no gospel will grope its way through darkness to death without the light of the knowledge of the Saviour’s name. Every child of God and every church is under orders. To carry out this commission of our crucified and risen Lord is the one thing before us. For this the church exists; for this the world stands. The time is short.”